Obligatory eating. It’s a cancer on our social atmosphere. Sure, it seems harmless. We assure you, it’s not.

Joes’s having a birthday and there will be a greasy store bought grotesquely decorated cake, in the break room, and you only have to stand around and eat one piece while pretending to care. It’s just cake. But, it’s not.

It’s a symptom. It’s a sign of a greater, deeper void: a need there seems to be in social settings to feed people. To stuff that void with ridiculous amounts of food-like edibles that have little to no nutritional worth, lest you offend the masses.

You want to wish Joe a happy birthday right? What, you don’t like birthdays?! Eat the cake. It’s just cake. What says “we wish you well” like the potential last straw for diabetes?

We say, no.

Stop.

Enough.

Why is it such a social suicide to show up at a party and refuse the curdling dip and msg laden chips because we have already fed our bodies or we aren’t hungry or we wouldn’t choose to put that in our bodies in the first place?

It is healthy and okay to refuse to take a bite of someone’s food. It’s totally fine to pass on appetizers when having drinks. You don’t even have to accept the homemade cookies or zucchini bread someone brought you. It is in your best interest to avoid noshing on BBQ or popcorn or Christmas cookies just because it’s there or it’s a celebration. Feed your body what it needs. Not what you are guilted or gifted into.

We promise, it won’t really be offensive to politely refuse. When we succumb to what others suggest or want us to do we give up our own wants and needs. We give over the power to the bite, the cookie, Joe’s birthday cake. When we are assertive and feed our bodies what they need, the next step is to protect that precious vessel by politely saying, “No thank you.”